An Ezer Like Him by Bryan Schiele
295 | Seven sermon summer surfin’ spectacular
Stand With Your Helper
Surf's up for another entry in our Seven Sermon Summer Surfin' Spectacular! Between cross-country moving logistics, hauling heavy furniture, and nursing sore backs, Bryan steps up to the pulpit to deliver a powerful lesson all about what it truly means to be a "helper." Starting in the Upper Room with Jesus' promise of "another Helper," Bryan unpacks four Old Testament and New Testament snapshots of God stepping into impossible situations when His people are outmatched and outgunned. But the lesson takes a dramatic turn back to Genesis 2. Exploring the Hebrew roots of Ezer(rescuer, strength) and Kenegdo (corresponding, eye-to-eye puzzle piece), alongside God's fierce, womb-like compassion (Rahamim), this Mother's Day sermon dismantles cultural misconceptions about biblical womanhood and calls us to honor the life-saving strength of the helpers in our lives.
Takeaways
The Big Idea: Biblical help is never about subordinate assistance or fetching coffee, but mighty, life-saving, and strong.
-
Summer Surfing Welcome
Bryan: Well, surf's up everyone, and welcome to the Seven Sermons Summer Surfing Spectacular. I'm Bryan Schiele
Ryan: I'm Ryan Joy
Bryan: And thanks for tuning in. Uh, we have been bringing in a bunch of guests here on the episodes, and we've got a couple more to come. But, uh, on this episode, I suppose it's my turn with a sermon, so I'm bringing one to the table.
A sermon that I did all about help and helpers.
Moving Day Helpers
Bryan: And Ryan, for myself right now, right in the middle of a move, we're doing all kinds of crazy stuff with loading up furniture and traveling across the country and everything else right now. Uh, who is your, like, go-to helper when you're moving somewhere? Do you have, like, a certain person in mind, and, like, do you think they get tired of, of you asking them for help in this, these kinds of ways?
Ryan: You know, yeah, there's, there's a... Isn't it funny? It always seems to be the older guys in the congregation who probably shouldn't be, you know, straining their backs that
Bryan: They're retired. What else did they have
Ryan: they are, yeah, they are retired. I, I mean, I have so many guys that I know. It's, it's a great test of a friendship, right? I know that many of my friends here would be up for it.
But yeah, my, uh, my friend Dave and my friend Jeff here, who are both former elders here at the congregation, I know would be, would be there and, uh, w- will bring a, uh, what's, what's those little carts that you, uh... They, they'll, they would bring dollies and, uh, expert movers, expert packers. What, what about you?
You, are you lining up your, your top draft picks for, uh, helping you load up?
Bryan: Yeah. Well, uh, one of my, one of my best moving buddies, Kurt, uh, he is-- he just had shoulder surgery, so unfortunately I'm sort of left with like my, you know, 95 pound wife and my mom who's like, she's really good at moving, but, you know, definitely not, uh, not as strong as she used to be. Yeah, in her
Ryan: definitely not a Kurt 'cause he's like, like He-Man. Uh, he's, he's got a... He's built for, for moving
Bryan: Unfortunately right now, not built for it after having surgery. So yeah, I'm sort of at a deficit right now of, of movers and, uh, definitely leaning on the dollies as much as possible, so
God as Mighty Helper
Ryan: Well, I, I wanted to talk to you about helpers here for a minute, and the sermon reframes how we think of helpers from those, you know, the little assistants like the kids helping pass out crayons to more of a, a mighty rescuing help. And so as we prepare to hear the sermon, how has it helped you to reflect on God, Father, Son, notably the Spirit, of course, as your helper?
Bryan: Yeah. Uh, well, I, you know, in prepping for this sermon and I was thinking about all the references in the Old Testament to God as a helper and the kind of help that he provides, it is just such a reframe of how we view help and helpers, like you were saying about, like, the little kids passing out crayons and things.
When we view the help of God, it's not like an assistant or just someone who comes in afterwards to kinda, like, do the little work that didn't really need to be done in the first place or something like that. Like, he's not gonna get us coffee, for sure. He's, like, stepping in in these huge moments to do things that no one can or could.
And just to m- imagine God's help and the ways that he's referred to, like in the Psalms and in Deuteronomy and, like, Exodus, and we'll get into it in this episode in, in the, in the sermon. But just thinking about that reminds me of how, how powerful and, and just foundational God is in everything that he does.
He's, he's definitely doing way more work than I can do on my own, for sure
Ryan: Those promises and descriptions of God in the Psalms especially, but throughout the Old Testament, this picture of the helper that is a warrior God, you know, who is mighty to rescue and save, but also is so tender with his people. It's, it's such a helpful contrast to hold on to those two pictures or attributes of God as, as mighty and victorious, and yet he is mighty for us in, in his commitment.
Bryan: Yeah, and it's, it's all across the, the scripture too, from the beginning of the Bible all the way to the end of the Bible, God's help, uh, His, His promises over us. And then, you know, that changes the game for us. You know, I, I believe the Lord is my helper. I will not fear, the Hebrews writer says. So, you know, you get this moment of just, like, confidence and knowing that He's helping not just somebody else, but He's my helper, and that, that takes away my fear.
So cool
Ryan: Well, we'll hear more about this Hebrew word that I'm about to say, and I'll, I'll let you define it afterwards. But, uh, without further ado, let's get into this sermon, An Etzer Like Him by Bryan Schiele
Another Helper Promised
Bryan: So there were 11 men
that followed Jesus around, gathered together in the upper room the night before Jesus was crucified, and every single one of them was confused, were a little bit concerned, and were pretty afraid of what was going to happen in the future. Their rabbi, their teacher, has begun to talk like this is the end And in John chapter 14 verse 16, Jesus turns to his disciples who are confused, who are scared, and he says this, "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever."
I've read this verse a lot. John is my favorite gospel, so I've, I've read the Book of John many, many times. I've never picked up on the word another before. He says, "I am going to give you another helper." Because every time I read this verse, I jump straight to verse 26, and I think, "The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all the things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."
What I immediately know is that Jesus, in verse 16, is talking about the Holy Spirit. Yet He uses the word another helper, which strikes me as interesting, because what does He mean by that? That He Himself has been a helper of sorts, that He's been helping them. And so we know that the Son is called the Helper as He's referring to Himself.
We know that the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Helper, who He'll refer to in verse 26, and God also throughout scripture describes Himself as a helper.
What Helper Really Means
Bryan: And so as I think about this, I think about this word helper, and helper for a lot of us can mean almost anything. Like when we were kids, the helper was the kid who passed out the crayons in class, right?
He was the helper. When you go to Home Depot, the guy in the orange vest is a helper, right? They're the ones who assist you and help you. If you have little kids and you invite them to come into the kitchen and help you craft some kind of dinner or meal, you know that they are helping you, although it usually ends up taking, like, twice as long when they do, and you probably have a huge mess on your hands.
But we know what it's like to, to have a helper, and when we hear that word, we hear the word assistant, I think, a lot of times. We hear that there is someone who is alongside of us who is just assisting us, who's helping us in some way, and is that what God is saying about His presence, about what Jesus provided, about what the Holy Spirit provided, about what He Himself provided?
The question that we'll ask this morning is what kind of helper is our God? When God describes Himself, both the Father, the Son, and the Spirit as a helper, what does that mean? What does it mean for God to be a helper? What kind of helper is He?
Four Bible Snapshots
Bryan: So we're gonna let the Bible answer this because there are so many passages that talk about God as a helper, and so we're gonna pull out four moments from scripture, and together we'll see how God helps us In all the ways that he does.
First is from Exodus 18:3-4. You can turn there for the context or you can just read it on the screen with me. But in the context, this is when Moses had just come out of Egypt, and so he's passed through the Red Sea. He is on the other side safely, and now he's meeting his family members on the other side.
Jethro and his wife bring his two children to him for the very first time, and, and Moses now speaks of his children, and he tells one of their names. The second child's name in verse three is Eliezer, and this word Eliezer, this name means, "The God of my father was my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh."
He named his child Eliezer. This is not like a name out of a baby book or whatever. Like Moses is choosing this name for his son because something has happened to him. He was hunted, he was outmatched by Pharaoh. The army of the Egyptians was just so massive that there is no way that, that Moses or the children of Israel should have survived that oc- occasion.
And so when they come out the other side, he names his second son, "My God is my help." That's what the name Eliezer means, and he named him that because God helped him, saving him from the sword of Pharaoh. And so the first statement that we'll see about God and His help is that God shows up when we cannot save ourselves.
God's help is there when we are outmatched, outgunned, and we cannot save ourselves. So for God to be a helper is, is so much more than like an assistant or a little kid passing out crayons. This is when we are outmatched and outgunned. He doesn't just make things easier on us. He's the one we call when we are completely out of options.
So that's moment number one in the scripture. Let's go to moment number two. This is in Psalm 121, and you may be familiar with this psalm. It's a pretty popular psalm. This is the song that the children of Israel would have sang as they were going up to Jerusalem, as they were traveling to Jerusalem, and this was the song that they would sing about the hills around them and the danger that might have faced them on the journey with all the bandits, with all the robbers, and this was the song that they sung.
"From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and Earth." Where does my help come from? My help comes from the creator of everything. My help does not come from the guy at Home Depot with the orange vest. My help comes from the one who has made everything. So that's the second thing we learn about God's help.
What kind of helper is God? He's the one who made the hills as we walk through them. He is the one who set the sea open for the children of Israel to pass through. He is the one who made the stars and everything we see in creation today. Our help comes from the one who made it all. God is a helper, has created everything that we know, and He is the one who helps us.
Are you getting why this is an important conversation? We begin to see that God is an amazing helper. So the third moment in scripture comes at a time in Moses' life where I think he would much rather forget This is Deuteronomy 33. The book of Deuteronomy is the second giving of the law. This is the second reading of the law to the children of Israel who had wandered through the wilderness for 40 years and were now about to go back into the promised land where they should have gone a long time ago, but they rebelled and they had to wander.
And so now they're wandering back, they're going back into the promised land, and Moses, in his very last words to his people, because he doesn't get to go into the promised land, he says to them this, "O Israel, who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help and the sword of your triumph?"
He's talking to his people, Israel, and he says to them, "Who is like you?" And we can notice that. Like, as a people, the children of Israel were set apart, they were different, they were following a very different god than all of the false gods around them. And so as they're about to go into the land of promise, he says to them, "Who is like you?
You ragged and former slaves, you wanderers in the desert for 40 years. There is nobody like you, not because you are strong, not because you are impressive, not because you're particularly good at obeying anything, but because you have a shield and a helper, who is our God." And so we understand as a third point here that God is the one who sets His people apart, that God as a helper is the one who sets a people apart for Himself and makes them His own special chosen people.
Amazing that God would do that. If we were to take God away from the children of Israel, they would've been just another small tribe in the desert, dying of thirst and hunger. But put God in their midst, and who is like you, O Israel? Who is like you, people? And the fourth moment, the final moment we'll consider, is in Hebrews 13:6.
Fast-forward all the way to the New Testament, and we get to Hebrews 13:6, where the Hebrews writer says to the church there i- that he's speaking to, preaching to, "We can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?'" And in fact, uh, if you're, if you're picking up on it, he is quoting Psalm 118 back to the church.
So he's actually quoting a psalm back to the church here, and he says, "The Lord is my helper. I will not fear." He is, God is, the help who makes us unafraid. God is the helper who makes us unafraid, who makes it so that we can stand, not because things are easy... And if you'll remember, the, the Hebrew Christians at this time, are they having an easy time of it?
Absolutely not. They're losing their, their homes. They're losing their families. They're losing their close relationships. This is not a good situation for them in the church as they begin to follow Jesus, commit their life to Jesus. But yet, the Hebrews writer can say, "When God is on my side as my helper, what, what is there to fear?
What do I have to be afraid of?" And so when we look at all four of these statements, what kind of helper is our God? He is the God who shows up when we cannot save ourselves. His help comes because He is the maker of everything. He is the one who sets His people apart, and He makes us unafraid. This is the kind of God that Jesus spoke about when He said, "The helper is coming."
This is the kind of God who helps, who steps in, and who does all of these amazing things for us, and this would be a great sermon if we were just talking about the help of God. But let me position this and pivot just a little bit. There is one word in Hebrew that is used for this word help every single one of these verses.
This word is not just about Moses' son, is not just about Psalm 121 as they sang when they went up to Jerusalem. It's not just about Deuteronomy 33, and this is not just when Hebrews quotes Psalm 118. Every one of these uses this Hebrew word, ezer And every single time that this Hebrew word is used, ezer means something about God's strong help, the rescue He offers, the source that He is, the shield that He is for us, and the word that makes us unafraid.
This is ezer.
Ezer in Genesis
Bryan: It is about strength So let's go back to the first time that this word is used in the Bible, because it's not in Psalms, and it's not in Deuteronomy, and it's not in Exodus. In fact
It's Genesis 2. And Genesis 2 says, "Then the Lord God said-"
It's not good that the man should be alone. I will make for him an ezer fit for him
And when we get to that word so often as modern Americans, 2026, we bristle at this word. You probably have bristled at this word. You've probably read the beginning chapters of the Book of Genesis, and you've gotten to the point where God describes the woman as a helper and thought to yourself, "The assistant.
The kid passing out the crayons. The guy at Home Depot with the orange vest." You've probably thought about something that is so not this word. You have probably thought about the assistant who goes to fetch the coffee rather than a strong helper It sounds small to be a helper. It sounds less than to be a helper.
And if that's what we hear when we hear God say that, "I will make for him a helper," it is no wonder that some of us bristle at that, that we reject that idea. Because we have just spent 15 minutes talking about how God uses this word ezer for His own name, how God overwhelmingly describes Himself with the language of ezer, of help, of strength, of protection.
And so when the Bible wants to describe what women are, what God has made women to be, He does not go to the coffee shop or to the crayon box. He goes to a battlefield. He takes us to the word that in the Jewish mind would have immediately fired off signals about God's help, a sea that split open and a son who was named after that rescue.
That is the maker of heaven and Earth who helps. He is a shield. God, this word ezer, who, when He puts Himself in the midst of a people, that people can be said, "Who is like you? Oh, Israel, your help and your shield are with you." This word ezer can make a church who is beset by, by persecution and difficulty, this word can make a church not fear because God is their helper.
That is the word that ezer is all about And so when God says, "I will make him an ezer," he is not handing Adam an assistant. He is not giving him just someone who is, is smaller than him and like a mini version of Adam or just a l- a, a little off to the side kind of helper. No, he's calling into being a strength.
But what kind of strength? What kind of strength is God giving to Adam in creation? What kind of strength is this ezer all about? Because we spend a lot of time talking about God's strength and his ezer abilities, the, the fact that he is a shield and all of the things that, that he is capable of doing, but there is a word that we typically just bounce right over, and we get stuck on helper, I think, a lot in our modern society, and we miss fit for him.
That last part is very, very important.
Kenegdo Face to Face
Bryan: You will make him an ezer fit for him, and so this word fit for him is one Hebrew word. This is a compound word, and it's the word kenegdo. The Hebrew word kenegdo, this is, uh, really, this is the only time in scripture where this compound word is used, kenegdo. And this word put together this idea of corresponding to or face to face with.
This means to be fitted or matched together. This is like two shapes that actually don't make any sense when they're apart but make perfect sense when they're together. This is not underneath. This is not above. This is across. This is eye to eye, and so this is, again, not a lesser version of Adam. This is not a smaller model or a prettier version of Adam.
This is the counterpart. This is the counterpart, the kenegdo that was meant to be face to face with Adam, the one whose presence completes the entire picture of what God was drawing in creation. And so we have these two words, ezer, which we've talked about being a help and a strong helper, and we have this word kenegdo.
And together, these words, this very first description of woman is a strength corresponding to him A rescuer, as we've talked about, who is fitted to stand face to face with Adam. This is a help with battlefield gravity who is matched to a man eye to eye, and that is what God said when He made Eve. When He made woman, that is who He was making.
And I don't know who needs to hear that this morning, but I think it's important for us to say that God, when He could choose to use any word to describe a woman, chose the word that He uses of Himself, ezer, and chose to use this word kanegdo in such a way that it's, that it's perfectly fit together, perfectly matched and balanced, someone who is suitable to this task.
And so what is ezer strength? What does it mean? Because again, we've talked about God and His strength, but if she is an ezer, if the woman is an ezer in creation, and she uses the same... She carries the same word God uses for Himself, what kind of strength is that? Is it only this kind of shield and maker kind of strength that we've talked about with God Himself in the first half of the lesson, or is there more to it than just that?
Womb Like Compassion
Bryan: So let's let God answer the question, and we're gonna go to Isaiah 49 because once you see these connections in Isaiah, there's two connections I'll draw out. Once you see these connections, you will never not see them because here's what happens. Israel is in Babylon. They are in exile, and the last half of the Book of Isaiah is all about Isaiah speaking to a people who think that God has left them completely, that God has abandoned them.
They, "Have, have you forgotten us, God?" And so Isaiah gets to answer that question through God, and here's what God says. This is the words of the, of the Lord. "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you."
That's what God says to a people that He allowed to be taken into captivity who think God is far removed from them and has forgotten them completely. And when God wants to say, "I'm never gonna forget you He doesn't reach for the language of a king or a nation. He doesn't reach for the language of, like, a warrior or, like, an eagle swooping in or some amazing, like, show of force.
He uses the language of a nursing mother to describe himself. The fiercest and most unforgettable love that a human being knows is the closest picture that God can give for how much He loves His people
And then he says, "Even these may forget, but I will never forget." How amazing is that? That God uses the language of a mother to talk about how much He loves His people. Let's continue because Isaiah 66 goes on. A few chapters later, here He d- here He goes again, "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem."
Again, picking up the language of comfort from a mother. This is a mother who is comforting her child. Hold onto that, that we've seen so far this God who is Ezer, who is a helper, who is a shield, who is a maker, that God, when He describes His own tenderness, reaches for the love of a mother And this word that he's using here is actually the word in Exodus 34:6 when He first speaks of Himself to a people who have just rejected Him.
He says, "I am Yahweh, Yahweh, a God of comfort." And that comfort word, that compassion word, is rahamim in Hebrew. It's a fun one to say. Rahamim is the, the word in Hebrew that God uses to describe His own compassion. That word that we read in Isaiah, that word that we read in Exodus 34, He is the God of compassion.
And this word is really cool because this word means compassion, but from the root. Rehem is the word for womb. When God describes Himself as a compassionate God, He is actually describing Himself with womb-like love. It's an amazing... Have you ever pictured God like this? He's, He's literally using the language of the, the, the creation of man, of the generation of humans.
He's using that word to describe how much He loves us. He's using female language to describe Himself. And so what is womb love? I mean, I don't have to describe it to some of you, some percentage of you in the room, because you know what womb love is. It's a love that will not let go. It's a love that holds on to what it has made.
It, it's a love who protects what cannot protect itself, and it will not stop carrying those who are suffering. That is who God is. When God describes Himself, He describes Himself in the language of compassion, in the language of womb-like care. Not soft love, but fierce love. This is the strongest love that a human being can even imagine, and God says, "That's the kind of love I have for you And so
To those who are women, who have had the opportunity maybe to come up against that word helper in Genesis 2, and maybe bristled against it, just look at what we're talking about this morning. Look at what we're holding here in this conversation. God is the ezer. God is the helper. He is the rescuer. He is the shield.
He is the maker who shows up. He is the one with a womb-like love that has the fiercest care for us that there ever can be, and in the very first chapters of the Bible, God says that it's not good for man to be alone. I will provide for him an ezer. I will make him an ezer kenegdo, a strength, a shield corresponding to him, a rescuer who is fitted face to face.
And so do we understand what God says about you? Do you understand what God says about you when He made you? That you were not small, that you were not an assistant, that you were not made to go fetch coffee while the real work happens somewhere else. You were made with the same word God uses for Himself.
You were made with the word that carries strength, that carries rescue, the word that has that kind of fierce, deep, from your core kind of love. That is who the maker of heaven and Earth describes you in the same language as His own heart. That's who God says that you are, and isn't that cool? Isn't it amazing that God describes women with the same language He uses for Himself?
Well, we go back to John 14 verse 16 where we started this. It's the night before the cross, and 11 men are scared out of their mind because Jesus is talking like he's going away. Their rabbi sounds like he is at the end of the road. And so he says to them, "I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever."
Do you read that differently now? Do you read what Jesus is saying differently now? He's not saying, "I'm just gonna give you an assistant. I'm just gonna give you somebody who's gonna step in and, you know, pop in every now and again." He's saying, "I am going to give you a rescuer, a shield, the one who shows up when we cannot save ourselves, the one who sets his people apart, the one who makes us unafraid, the one whose wound-like love will not let us go."
That is the helper that Jesus is sending to be with us forever, and that is the God that we serve. That's who Jesus was, that who- that's who the Father is, and that's who his Spirit is.
Treating Ezers Well
Bryan: So that's kinda cool that Jesus would say as he was leaving, "Here's whom I'm sending to you, the helper, the Ezer." And of course, we need to kind of turn to the guys here.
So we'll finish up with this. Just think about this word for a minute Because if God wears this name for himself we've gotta think really carefully about how we treat the Ezras in our own life If that's who God says that he is, then when we have these connections with the wives among us, our mothers, our sisters, our daughters, the members of this church, all of our friends, no matter who they are as women in this church, we need to think very seriously about how we treat the helpers God has made for us And not to be doom and gloom about it, but Hosea has something to say about this in Hosea 13:9.
Actually, God speaking through Hosea says, "He destroys you, O Israel, for you are against me, your helper."
Against your helper To stand against your ezer, to stand against your helper, is to destroy yourself. And God is of course speaking of himself here again. He is of course speaking about his own help. If you stand against my help, you have no one to save you. But what does it mean to be against your ezer?
The strength who is meant to stand beside you? If there is a woman in your life, men, who you have treated as less than or underneath you or against you or someone who you have managed rather than honored, then hear what God is saying. You are not standing against an assistant, you are standing against an ezer.
The same word that God uses for himself We need to all understand that God has made male and female to be eye to eye, face to face from the original design God helps us, and he's given us our wives, our daughters, our mothers, our sisters in Christ. He's given them to us to help us
Invitation to Trust Help
Bryan: So where does your help come from? Where does your help come from? Because as we transition to the invitation here this morning, some of us carry things that we can't carry, that we shouldn't carry, and we have burdens that we're holding onto, fears that we haven't let go of, sins that we just cannot put down, and wounds of brokenness that we are trying to manage ourselves, that we're trying to save ourselves through.
And how is that working for you, Dr. Phil would say. How is that working for you to try to manage and save yourself? We were never... This is the good news. We were never meant to manage those things on our own, because we have a helper. We have an Ezra. The God, the maker of heaven and Earth, He is the shield of His people, and He is the God who will not forget us, whose womb-like deep love will not let us go.
Post Sermon Reflection
Bryan: Well, that was a lot of me again. I think I said that on our last Seven Sermon Summer Surfing Spectacular episode. Uh, yeah, so thanks everyone for listening to this one, and, you know, we didn't really talk about the, the twist. This was actually a sermon that I gave on Mother's Day this year, and I didn't wanna do the, like, typical Mother's Day sermon.
I was sort of trying to lean on, you know, something that held up women to a place that they're not always held up, you know, helping reframe the way we view them in just this, this way that we view God as our helper, and how that same word was used i- to, to reference Eve in the beginning in creation. Just to...
I, I hope it served to, to bless the women who heard it at the time, and for anyone else, obviously, who's listening to it today
Ryan: Yeah, it's helpful for, for, uh, us as husbands to have that right framing for what was God's purpose in creating Eve and making humanity as man and woman, and I loved that setup. I loved the way hopefully everybody caught the turn. It was hard to miss. Um, and, and you set us up really well with this, you know, idea of who God is as helper, and then that turned to, to the help meets, as the King James puts it, and
Bryan: Oh yes, the
Ryan: w-
Bryan: James.
Ryan: the King James.
Hebrew Words Explained
Ryan: I wonder if you could talk again about those two Hebrew words, and I'll let you say them, and, and what they mean, this help meet or suitable help
Bryan: Yeah, the suitable help. Uh, but so etzer obviously is helper, um, and we've, we so often focus on that, that word. But then also kenedo is that suitable word, and that's the one that really, I think carries a lot of power. It's the one that we sh- probably should be thinking of more, and just that word a- and, you know, a lot of Hebrew scholars kind of go back and forth on, on the definition of that word kenedo, and it's a compound word, and it's really only ever used here in the, in the beginning in Genesis.
But this word is just like fit for him or is suitable for him or like a... I-- okay, Postal Service has this song, um, how they talk about two puzzle pieces,
Ryan: yes.
Bryan: that come together. And like when you think about, when you think about puzzle pieces and them being put together, that's, that is the idea here.
They, these are two corresponding shapes, corresponding parts that are fitting together in, in Adam and in Eve, in, in man and woman, and just the idea that like... And it resonates with me. I think it resonates with everybody when you really think about, you know, their, uh, we, we both bring so much to the table and both of those things go, those contributions are so different, uh, but so necessary.
Like there, there, there is an intentionality there about the differences that God made in, in women versus the differences God made in men. And you know, this idea of kenedo is just really the, the idea that God is drawing out what man isn't to be a help and a, and a suitable helper to him. And again, the strength there in that etzer word, um, so all of those things put together just really starts to elevate the importance of who women are in our lives and who they were created to be.
And, uh, yeah, those two words together I think bring, bring that Genesis passage so much power.
Ryan: Yeah, that, that strong partner that is, like you said, the puzzle piece. Like w- a lot of times we think of matching, like this word implies, as like they're the same, they're a match. But this word in it has that, that sense of partnering like an opposite that is the perfect partner that fits together with it, that match, that corresponding part.
And there's s- man, there's so many implications to that and, and it's, it's a really beautiful picture of how God made humanity. In the beginning, he made them male and female. We're, we're embodied in this identity that as i- image bearers together being, um, being male and female meant to fit together. I, I just love how you brought that out, and, uh, really appreciate this sermon.
And it's a, it's a call to all of us to, um, take to heart both God as our help and this, this blessing that, uh, women, and wives in particular, are meant to be in God's design as, uh, as this corresponding etzer. Did I say that right?
Bryan: Sure. I don't know. I, I always say Ezer, but I, I'm, I'm with you, man.
Final Blessing Outro
Bryan: I'm, I'm not a Hebrew pronunciator, so... Thank you so much everyone for tuning in to this episode of the Seven Sermon Summer Surfin' Spectacular.
Uh, we're gonna have another episode coming up here in the next week, so thanks for tuning in to that, and until next episode, may the Lord bless you and keep you
Ryan: Shalom